Monday, October 10, 2005

Entertaining a thought

That is to say, I've been entertaining the thought for some time, but the thought doesn't entertain me one bit. Now this Andy Rooney piece brings my unease closer to the surface.

I'm not really clear how much a billion dollars is but the United States — our United States — is spending $5.6 billion a month fighting this war in Iraq that we never should have gotten into.

We still have 139,000 soldiers in Iraq today.

Almost 2,000 Americans have died there. For what?

Now we have the hurricanes to pay for. One way our government pays for a lot of things is by borrowing from countries like China.

Rooney goes on to compare US military spending ($455 billion in 2004) with that of other countries (Japan $42 billion, Italy $28 billion, Russia $19 billion) and suggest that instead of borrowing, the US should be looking to save money in this area. Lots of money.

The thing is, when your military budget almost equals the rest of the world's combined defence spending, where are you going to find a bailiff to collect on those loans? Considering the current US administration's track record — one big fat hubristic "fuck you" both at home and abroad (and literally, in Dick Cheney's case) — are they deranged enough to think that they can renege on payment, retreat into splendid isolation, and ride out the economic shitstorm that would ensue, safe in the knowledge that everyone else will be hurting worse? There's a lot of attention paid to Third World debt; maybe some of that attention belongs elsewhere.

In short: Does America expect to have to pay her debts?

Yes, this is a pretty immature speculation, but when did the White House last demonstrate any real maturity? Last millennium, wasn't it?